Loves is in the air

On Sunday the bees were making the most of the weather. The landing boards were busy with workers returning hopefully with honey sacs full of nectar or laden pollen baskets.

Returning foragers

I didn't open the hives though, we'd had a few days of rain so I decided it was better to leave them to replenish whatever stores they've used than interrupt their work with an inspection. As well as the workers charging in and out I also noticed a lot of Drones ambling out and a few returning. In the video below the Drones are easy to spot, they're larger than the workers and walk out very slowly compared to the workers.

Drones heading out.
They'll probably wind up as sex murder victims.

There were a few drones returning and wandering back into the hives so I'd assume they'ed just been out on orientation flights -having a fly about to figure out where they live, maybe locate the Drone Congregation Areas. Drone Congregation Areas are as the name suggests areas that Drones from various colonies hang out and Virgin Queens go to meet them. It's a bit of a mystery how they decide the areas but it seems to work for them and somehow they manage to avoid mating with Queens from their own colonies. After they mate they'll die from abdominal wounds. Strange to think each Queen bee happily laying eggs has probably killed about 15 Drones during her adolescence.